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quinta-feira, 29 de maio de 2014

BOOK TOUR: Victoria Bernardine - A Life Less Ordinary

For the last fifteen years, Rose “Manny” Mankowski has been a very good girl. She turned her back on her youthful fancies and focused on her career. But now, at the age of 45, she's questioning her choices and feeling more and more disconnected from her own life. When she's passed over for promotion and her much younger new boss implies Manny's life will never change, something snaps. In the blink of an eye, she's quit her job, sold her house and cashed in her pension, and she's leaving town on a six month road trip.

After placing a personal ad for a travelling companion, she's joined in her mid-life crisis by Zeke Powell, the cynical, satirical, most-read – and most controversial – blogger for the e-magazine, What Women Want. Zeke's true goal is to expose Manny's journey as a pitiful and desperate attempt to reclaim her lost youth – and increase his readership at the same time. Leaving it all behind for six months is just an added bonus.

Now, armed with a bagful of destinations, a fistful of maps, and an out-spoken imaginary friend named Harvey, Manny's on a quest to rediscover herself – and taking Zeke along for the ride.

Excerpt:

“All I ever wanted was a life less ordinary.”

Manny lay flat on her back, eyes wide, staring at the
ceiling while she waited for her clock to hit 6:00. Another day of work, she
thought. Another day older and deeper in debt.

She had the alarm timed to the millisecond. The
jarring noise had barely begun when she clicked it off. She sighed then threw
back the covers and got out of bed.

She padded into the bathroom, glanced without interest
in the full-length mirror that doubled as her shower doors and took her morning
inventory.

Plain face? Check.

Looking tired? Check.

Thirty pounds overweight? Check.

Dark circles under deer-caught-in-headlights eyes?
Check and check.

She shook her head at her limp, mousy hair and
wondered when she’d gotten so old.

She sighed in resignation then conjured up her Perfect
Fantasy Man–or Harvey, as she liked to call him–to give her a morning lift. She
cocked her head to one side as she stared into the mirror and imagined him
standing behind her. She smiled at the handsome man, and he smiled back,
putting his hands on her shoulders. Everything about him was warm, in stark
contrast to the cold shades of grey in which she lived her life. He had warm
brown eyes, warm brown skin, and a warm smooth voice that always reminded her
of golden honey. Today his hair was black with greying temples, and yes, even
that seemed warm to her.

He was perfect, everything she considered ideal in a
man–and extra-perfect, of course, because he was a fantasy. Just the thought of
trying to establish a relationship with an actual man felt too much like work.

She sighed and Harvey disappeared.

“Instead I ended up in a
rut–everything planned and executed to the minute.”

She finished her shower and padded out to the kitchen
wrapped in a worn terrycloth robe just as the coffee pot finished perking her
morning coffee. She pulled a white cup out of the cupboard, filled it and took
it with her to the bedroom, where she drank her coffee while she dressed and
pulled her hair into its habitual bun high on the back of her head. At 6:45
sharp, she was back in the kitchen where she rinsed out the cup and put it on
the rack next to the other three cups from earlier in the week; they marked the
passage of time like scratches on a prison wall.

She walked out the door at 6:55 as usual, called good
morning to Mr. Abinash from next door, as usual, got into her car and drove to
work. As usual. She walked in at 7:37, called good morning to those of her
staff already at their desks, and settled herself in her office.

As usual.

She sighed silently as she logged on to her computer
and realized she couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a sick day or had
come in late. Even her car and traffic and the sometimes-harsh Edmonton winters
had given up trying to throw off her schedule.

She sighed again as she rifled through her stacks of
paper, searching for the information she needed to review before the staff
meeting at nine. The last staff meeting before their new boss arrived at ten,
and Manny went back to her old position. She’d enjoyed being the boss and
thought she’d had a good chance to win the promotion. If she was honest with
herself, though, she hadn’t really been surprised with the decision to offer
the job to Steph. If she had the energy, she’d almost wonder why she didn’t even
care that much.

“I told myself it was
security. But all I was doing was sleeping with my eyes open.”

Manny glanced up as her assistant energetically
bounced in.

“Morning, Manny.”

“Morning, Roxie. How was your evening?”

“Great–went to that new Robert Downey Jr. movie–rrrooowwwrrrr!
Phil wasn’t too impressed with my drooling though.”

Manny laughed. “I’d expect not. I guess I need to go
see it then.”

“Yeah, sure. When was the last time you actually went
to a movie in the theatre?”

Roxie shook her head in exasperated fondness and sat
down in front of Manny’s desk. She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “So,
the new boss starts today?”

“Yep,” Manny replied absently, reviewing the e-mails
in her inbox.

“Are you going to be okay with this? I mean, you–”

“Of course I’m okay with it. Steph’s a nice person,
bright, energetic, competent, levelheaded, full of new ideas. She may have a
bit of a learning curve ahead of her, but she’ll do just fine. She may be just
what we need around here. Perk us up a bit.”

“Yeah, but you–”

Manny took her hands off the keyboard and turned to
face Roxie directly. She gave her a reassuring smile and calmly held her gaze.

“I’m okay with it,” she said. “Really. I didn’t want
to be the boss anyway.” She paused then continued. “Everything’s going to be
fine. You’ll see. A new boss will be fun!”

Roxie grimaced cynically and Manny shook her head in
mock disapproval.

“We should get to work,” she urged gently.

Roxie nodded and stood. “Yeah, that at least never
changes. But Manny...”

Manny raised a quizzical eyebrow.

“It should’ve been you.”

Review:

Manny is a woman of 45 who is in the same job for 15, and only when another person is placed in the position of leadership that should be hers, she realizes that needed a upgrade in her life. In a lucid moment, she quits and decides to spend 6 months traveling by car. But she wanted a company and for that, she puts an ad in the newspaper.Several people respond to her ad and Zeke Powell ends up being chosen. Zeke is a man of 35 years old, coming from New Zealand who works as a "freelance multimedia developer". Would it be a most charming name for writer/blogger? Anyway, Zeke was writing about women in midlife crisis and Manny's ad came at the right time. Over the coming months they would share a car, traveling to places sometimes not so strange, but the best thing would be to inner discovery.Manny was actually facing a midlife crisis, having friends with their families formed with children or careers that gave them satisfaction, while Manny's life seemed to be frozen. Even without the intention of getting involved romantically, Zeke and Manny end up becoming more than fellow travelers and both of them return to their homes totally different as they were before... The book is fun and reflective. I loved the characters and the pace of the story. I just think that the cover could be a little better.